A Scarry Halloween
by Tanouska
Summary: It is Halloween and Remus is not planning on doing anything, besides hiding in his room. Sirius, however, has other plans. A fluffy Wolfstar fic.
1. Halloween

This is a short fic that I wrote during NaNoWriMo, while not actually participating. All the Nano madness around me was contagious and I decided to ask friends for short prompts, which resulted in this little thing. First prompt was _Wolfstar Halloween_ and came from The_Lady_of_Purpletown who was also generous enough to read and beta this :D

Hope you'll enjoy!

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It was the 31st of October and Remus had shut himself in the room he rented, located above one of the shops in one of the many alleys that led away from Diagon Alley. His windows were shut, curtains drawn and he even had a record playing, but all that still didn't shut out the sound of scratching against his window. When the scratching hadn't stopped after five minutes, Remus got up with a huge sigh and he set his book aside. As far as he knew only Sirius had trained his owls to be as obnoxiously persistent as he himself was, but maybe, _maybe,_ there actually was an emergency and he would never forgive himself for ignoring a message if that was the case.

Sure enough, when he opened the window, he saw Sirius' owl with a red letter in its claws.

Remus shook his head and let the owl in. Those bloody Howlers always knew when they were noticed by their recipients and heaven knew how the neighbours would react if it went off right in the middle of the street. He took the letter from the owl (who he could have sworn gave him a slightly mischievous look) and shut the window after it flew outside again.

He shut the curtains too and turned to the Howler, which had started smoking ominously.

'Fine, fine' he muttered, and slid his finger beneath the seal.

 _Remuuus!_ Sirius' whining voice boomed through the chamber

 _Stop ignoring my messages already, I_ know _you received them! I know you don't want to go out tonight, but James is too busy making smooching sounds with Lily, and Peter is off doing who_ knows _whatever he's busy with these days, and you can't seriously make me spend Halloween alone now can you? That would be torture, and there's enough of that going round these days! So; I know you don't want to go out in public right now, though sod the stupid people and what they think, but I have a perfect plan and you will have a great time so make sure you're ready when I come to pick you up at 8, ok?_

Sirius' voice had sounded quite out of breath by the end and Remus couldn't help the small smile that worked its way upon his face. Sirius was right; he really didn't want to go out in public right now. During the last full moon he had somehow managed to scratch his own face. The wolf, who had already been agitated because its pack wasn't around (the others had been needed on some business for the Order), had become even more energetic and aggressive because of the super moon that had been gracing the skies that night and that had resulted in more damage than his body could heal in one go. The scratches would probably fade to pale lines after the next full moon (only 5 more days to go and he would know) and then the murmurs and stares would lessen, he hoped. (Having obvious wounds in wartime seemed to make everyone think they could either demand an explanation, or whisper behind his back about 'hanging with bad sorts' and 'probably had a run-in with some dark wizards'. ) However, after more than 3 weeks being mostly cooped up indoors he _was_ feeling a bit restless and if Sirius said he had a plan, he usually did have a plan, one that would even work in most cases. Plus; how could he ever deny Sirius company when he was almost begging for it, he had even taken the effort of creating a Howler after all. If the plan proved to be a bit too… well, _Sirius_ … he could always turn to some other tried and proven methods of keeping Sirius indoors with him, he decided with a grin.

When Remus heard a knock on the door he went to open it with a small bit of dread and a whole lot of anticipation. What he wasn't expecting as soon as the opened the door was a few squirts of liquid straight in his face.

"What the-" He spluttered and smeared some of the liquid out of his right eye. The sight before him was enough to make him stop all motion. Sirius was deathly pale, and seemed to have severe wounds on the whole left side of his body. Even his robe was ripped up. For a second Remus feared the worst, but then Sirius' grin registered.

"Surprise!" he said happily. "Get in your oldest robes immediately, preferably ones that are properly ripped up, you should have no shortage of those!" When Remus just stared at him and didn't move Sirius gave him an impatient shove in the direction of his wardrobe. "Come on! We can't have your face look like something from one of Professor Binns' goblin war stories but your robes like you just ironed them, right?"

Remus turned around again and looked at Sirius with a sceptical look.

"And why, exactly, would we want to look like we've been attacked? I know it's Halloween, but do you really want to give people heart attacks? There's been quite enough real blood spilled lately, don't you think?" Really, sometimes it seemed like Sirius tried to live with his head buried firmly in a big pile of sand. Sirius, however, rolled his eyes dramatically and sighed.

"Remus, I know you are way smarter than I am, but that doesn't make me an idiot, you know? Of course I don't want to cause any major trouble, which is why-" His eyes stared glinting "-we'll be celebrating with the _muggles_ tonight! Won't that be great? No war, no worries, just good old fun with Padfoot and Moony!" His big grin had returned and Remus couldn't help grinning back. That really was a good idea. Though Voldemort was wreaking havoc quite regularly in the muggle world, percentage wise it was still safer and calmer than the wizarding world. Plus, he thought, turning towards the mirror on his wardrobe, with the fake blood that Sirius had squirted on his face first thing, the deep scratches on his face really did look like an intentional Halloween stunt. Who knew, they might even win some free drinks for best costume that evening!


	2. Bat-Kitten

This chapter was inspired by a picture of a very cute kitten with cardboard wings which decided to show up on my dash with perfect timing. Unfortunately I can't give a link here, but it really is very cute.

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As Remus and Sirius entered the second bar that evening some cheers went up and people gave them approving looks. One patron even yelled "Whoa, nice costumes guys!" from one of the booths. Sirius looked at Remus and waggled his eyebrows.

"See? I told you our outfits would be a huge success!"

"Sure Sirius, in this regular bar where only half the people are dressed up we are downright amazing"

"Well, I couldn't have known the theatre people with professional makeup artist friends would frequent the last bar, right? Although even they were impressed by your 'amazing' face scratches"

He winked at Remus and started towards the bar. Really, Remus thought, only Sirius would make light of his quite disfiguring wounds this way. Though, honestly, _obviously_ , that was why he liked him so much. One could never stay in a foul or grumpy mood with Sirius around to make the most inappropriate jokes.

Remus followed Sirius to the bar and found him discussing the advertised Pumpkin beer with the bartender.

"Why would you say it's _Pumpkin_ beer if there isn't even any pumpkin in it! That is just false advertisement!" Sirius had a beer in front of him in an alarming shade of orange, and he sported an orange foamy moustache on his upper lip.

"It's _seasonal_ " the bartender replied. "Why would you ruin a perfect pint of beer with actual pumpkin. Why would you even want to drink pumpkin, that just sounds gross"

Remus saw Sirius taking a big breath, ready for a heated reply, judging by the look on his face. Instead Remus nudged him aside and looked at the bartender.

"If you can get me one of those beers as well, I'll make sure this zombie here doesn't turn you into a similar state with a long eulogy about pumpkins, deal?" The bartender nodded and turned away.

"What?!" Sirius said to Remus in a mock-offended tone. "How can you not let me defend pumpkin beer! The pumpkin beer they sell at the Three Broomstick is almost tastier than their Butterbeer, and that is saying something! How was I to know that these people don't even know that pumpkin tastes perfectly _fine_ in a beer! This-" He gestured to the two beers that were now stood in front of them "this is hardly worth the name beer, let alone _pumpkin!"_ Remus grinned; you could always count on Sirius to have the most heated opinions on the most trivial topics. Getting him to rant about such things had been a favourite pastime of some students in the common room, making bets on the amount of time he would spent defending the good name of the most random foods and objects. The big winner had been an epic rant about the importance of the presence of the minced parsley that the House Elves usually added to potatoes. That particular rant had lasted for 21 minutes and had won James 6 bottles of Butterbeer.

They made their way to a booth that had just been vacated and sat down.

"So, what is your plan for the rest of the evening, besides drinking beer that has more orange pigment than Lily's hair?"

"Let's see," Sirius replied, "I was thinking we could ask around if any of the people here know of some nice parties we could crash, some nice costume contests to win, you know: have fun!" He took another big swig of his drink and the foam was once again staining his upper lip.

"Well, if you keep drinking your beer like that you'll be crawling by the time we're going home. It is quite a good zombie look of course, but the orange foam does clash rather harshly with the blood." Sirius just scoffed and licked the foam away in an overly dramatic manner. After that he turned around to tap the person in the booth behind them on the shoulder, to ask about any good parties, but then his attention was drawn by something on the table and he quickly turned back to Remus.

"Remus, Remus, look!" he stage-whispered to Remus, who raised an eyebrow and tried to look over Sirius' shoulder. Before he could see what Sirius was so excited about Sirius resumed talking.

"It's a kitten! A bat-kitten! Look! Oh Merlin's pants that is the cutest kitten I have ever seen!" he exclaimed. Remus stood from his seat a bit and finally saw what had Sirius gushing like a small child.

On the table next to theirs stood a small kitten; pitch black with big blue eyes. What was most remarkable though, and the detail that had Sirius so excited, was the fact that it was wearing a pair of small black bat-like wings, making it look like some kind of kitten-bat-vampire-hybrid. Remus had to admit that the kitten was incredibly cute, but he couldn't decide what was cuter, the kitten or the look of adoration in Sirius' eyes.

Soon, however, the adoration seemed to shift into something a little more mischievous. Remus saw Sirius grab something in his pocket and murmur something, apparently concentrating hard.

Sure enough, Remus saw the air around the kitten shimmer a bit, and the people around it looked a bit confused. The kitten's wings had started flapping softly, moving when the kitten did.

"Whoah, you really made those impressive!" one of the people at the table said. "How did you manage to do that?"

"Uhm, I-" The girl that held the kitten's leash said, sounding a bit flabbergasted "It's just cardboard with two creases in the middle, it moves along with his shoulder blades, I guess?" The rest of the group shrugged and seemed to take that as a logical enough explanation. The conversation moved on to other topics and Remus shifted his attention to Sirius, who was giggling like he'd just pulled of the best prank ever.

"That was fun, do you think Minerva would let us give her wings if she ever drank enough sherry?" He snorted at the idea of it and kept laughing.

"Sirius!" Remus tried to get a stern look upon his face "Cut it out; no magic around muggles, please. I know it's Halloween and they've all had a little too much beer but I really don't want to catch the attention of the Ministry today". He grabbed his own wand and ended Sirius' spell with a pointed look and a whispered spell.

"Oh, loosen up! The Ministry has bigger worries today, muggles talking about magic on Halloween won't even be a spark on their notification board, and I should know because I've seen how they work up close now. Halloween is the best date for some small harmless fun. "


	3. A Peculiar Drink

Very short chapter, sorry!

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Later in the evening they were indeed in another bar, enjoying the many elaborate costumes. Remus returned from getting another round of drinks when he saw Sirius looking at him with an incredulous look in his eyes.

"Seriously, Moony? Seriously?"

Remus just shrugged and contemplated sticking out his tongue to Sirius. However, his tongue was probably still orange from that beer a while ago, so perhaps he should save the tactic for a later part of the evening.

"No, no you can't! Remus!" Sirius kept complaining, "This is crazy even for you! What are you thinking! We are having a nice night out, we are in a _bar_ for crying out loud! I just can't hang out with you if you act like this, it's too embarrassing!"

Remus sighed.

"Sirius, you know drinking beer doesn't _do_ anything for me; werewolf, remember?" (And wasn't it nice to be able to say that out loud in a pub for once, without anyone thinking anything of it?) "Just let me enjoy myself in my own way, ok?"

"But Remus!" Sirius resumed. "You know it should be forbidden, this isn't normal behaviour and I don't even understand why they have it here, behind a bloody bar. Who the hell keeps that stuff behind a bar?"

This time Remus did stick out his tongue to Sirius, orange taste buds be damned.

"Quit being such a drama queen. It's perfectly normal. Okay, maybe not at-" He looked at the watch he had tucked inside one of the only non-shredded pockets of his robe- "11 at night, but I want it, and I won't let some stupid 'it's not appropriate' idea get in the way, okay?"

By now Sirius just looked at him, clearly disappointed in his choice and reasoning. "No, Remus, no matter how much you say you like it, ordering _tea_ in a bar, on Halloween when it's almost midnight, is _not normal behaviour_. I should have Poppy check you over during the next Order meeting. Some of those scratches clearly caused brain damage."

Remus laughed and gave Sirius a friendly shove before pushing a glass of whiskey in his hands.

"Just shut up and try this. It's the same colour as my tea, so people might even think I just ordered a double. Anyone who's spent more than five minutes in your proximity tonight would fully understand, I'm sure."

* * *

The prompt for this chapter was the fact that The Lady of Purpletown always drinks tea, so why shouldn't Remus?  
(I find prompts everywhere and nowhere.)


	4. The Smell of Hot Chocolate

The prompt for this chapter was "Smell of Hot Chocolate", thanks Ginnyvos!

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When they decided to head home it was late. Not late enough to enjoy deserted streets (it was Halloween after all) but still quiet enough to enjoy some illusion of privacy. Sirius had had quite a few drinks and was a bit past tipsy, whereas Remus was just quite tired and ready to curl up in bed. They were walking down the road, bumping into each other every now and then, when Remus suddenly stopped, grabbing Sirius by the arm. He stuck his nose a bit further in the air and sniffed audibly.

"Sirius, do you smell that?" he asks, drawing another deep breath.

"I smell nothing, apart from, you know, general Muggle-London smell."

Remus knew exactly what Sirius meant. Muggle-London always had this undertone of exhaust fumes, lots of people and a whiff of garbage, which somehow did smell different from the garbage in Diagon Alley or other wizarding places. With his keener sense of smell, Remus always had to get used to it in the first half hour of changing sides. Now, however, he was smelling something way nicer than car fumes. "No, that's not what I mean, come on, follow me."

He grabbed Sirius by the hand this time, and started walking fast, dragging Sirius along. It wasn't very long before he could see what he had smelled two streets away; a street cart that was using Halloween to gain some extra profit by selling one of Remus' favourite things in this world: hot chocolate. From what he could smell it was even _good_ hot chocolate, made with real chocolate, and he also spotted a canister of whipped cream.

"Two large ones with cream, please," Remus requested from the vendor, digging in his pockets for some pounds. He didn't even need to ask if Sirius wanted one as well, the look on his face once he had smelled the chocolate too had been obvious enough.

Not long after, they both had their hands wrapped around warm paper cups of chocolatey goodness. They walked along until they came by a lone bench. They both sat down on the back of the bench, because everyone knew the seats were too dirty to sit on, with all those rude people putting their feet on them. Remus took a cautious sip of his drink, when he heard Sirius cursing next to him.

"Why the hell would they make these drinks so hot? I think I just burned my tongue." Sirius stuck out his tongue and was apparently trying to see if it had sustained any damage. It was such a funny sight that it caused Remus to laugh, which resulted in an unamused glare from Sirius.

"Not funny," he deadpanned. The crinkles around his eyes betrayed his mood, though, and Remus gestured to his mouth.

"You managed to get _another_ foamy moustache with your greedy drinking habits." Remus swiped a little of the cream with his finger and put it in his mouth. "You're lucky I like whipped cream, though," he said with a grin, and he kissed the other side of Sirius' upper lip, where even more of the cream was located.

By the time Remus had made certain he had gotten all the cream off, their drinks had cooled to a nice drinking temperature, and the fake blood on Sirius' face had somehow migrated to the right side as well. But, since they were heading home anyway, he wasn't about to complain about Remus' sloppy cleaning methods.


	5. Frozen Buttocks

The prompts I wrote down for this small piece were butt and fireplace. I think I was making but/butt jokes with a friend :P Extremely short chapter, but the next one makes up for it, promise!

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After they had finished their drinks, and snogged some more for good measure, it really had gotten late and the streets were as good as deserted. It had also gotten quite cold, and Remus tried to suppress a shudder. Sirius, who had plastered himself against Remus, felt it anyway.

"Come on," he said, while hopping off the bench and shaking some feeling back into his legs. "Let's go to your place, the metal edge of that bench almost froze my buttocks off!"

Remus hopped off too. "Oh, good, I have the perfect solution for that!" When Sirius reacted by waggling his eyebrows at him in an over-the-top suggestive manner, Remus just chuckled. "Well, that would work too for sure, but I meant the fireplace. I found a new and very soft rug to place in front of it. I thought we could try that out, with some nice Firewhisky to warm our insides too?"

Sirius made a big show of pondering the proposition. "That kind of depends. Is it big enough for cuddles? Horizontal cuddles?"

"We'll just have to try and see, won't we? It's not like I've been rolling around on it by myself to test it." He had in fact been lying on it, to read in front of the fire two days ago, but there was no need to tell Sirius that. Testing it out together was way more fun, after all.

Sirius agreed and they took off, now longing for the warmth of the fire all the more.


	6. Testing, Testing

The prompts I used for this chapter were rug and scars.

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By the time they reached Remus' room they had both gotten quite cold. At some point Remus had put mild warming spells on their robes, but since those only affected the area that actually had fabric, the cold had still crept its way through the many holes and rips.

Remus set Sirius to work on the fireplace and he himself got two glasses and the bottle of Firewhisky out of his cupboards. He also used a quick cleaning spell on his face and splashed some water over it for good measure. For some reason cleaning spells always left behind some weird, not too pleasant feeling. When he turned to Sirius and the fire, he saw Sirius had gotten rid of the blood and paleness too.

Sirius gestured to his face. "Wouldn't want the new rug to get dirty, now would we?" He plopped down on the rug and held his hands out to take the bottle and glasses from Remus. He sat them down on the ground and pulled Remus down next to him.

"I believe I was promised some cuddles and rug-testing?" He lay down and pulled Remus on top of him, then proceeded to roll them both from side to side, causing Remus to let out an undignified squeak but also to plant a kiss on his nose when Sirius was lying on his back once again.

"So, what do you think?" Remus asked, pushing himself upward to be able to look at Sirius properly.

"I think it'll have to do. My feet are sticking out, but the general softness of this thing compensates for the discomfort caused by freezing toes."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Perhaps if you'd worn some proper warm socks that wouldn't be an issue."

"Warm socks are for people who don't have proper rugs on the floor. Or people who don't have people to warm their feet on." At those words he stuck the toe that peeked from his right sock up Remus robe, attacking his shin with coldness. Remus simply rolled off Sirius and grabbed his wand.

"Or people who don't know how to mend garments." He sat up and pulled the sock away from Sirius' toes a bit, and mumbled a spell, after which the threadbare thing knit itself together again. Enough to hold for a day or two, probably, Remus thought. He scooted towards the glasses and poured a nice helping of Firewhisky for both of them. The alcohol might not affect him much, the burn of the beverage did give the illusion of warmth, which was still quite welcome, despite the fire that was crackling in the hearth.

A while later they lay on their sides on the rug, their glasses empty again and pushed away a safe distance. Sirius was slowly tracing the line of Remus' jaw, then moving on to his newest scars.

"I'm sorry about these. I should have been there to calm the wolf," he said softly, tracing the deepest scratch, which ran over Remus' nose.

"You guys had better things to do, important things. I can handle myself. No need to rob the Order of even more good people during every full moon." Voldemort was usually a bit more active, a bit more vicious during the full moon, as he had some werewolves he liked to release on unsuspecting muggle villages. Remus felt bad enough about not being able to help, he didn't want Sirius to feel guilty about anything too.

"But it was a supermoon," Sirius protested. "We _all_ know those are the worst for you. We should have convinced Albus that at least one of us had other business to attend to that night." Sirius seemed to have more to say but Remus put a finger on his lips.

"Don't you think Albus might have become a little suspicious if you suddenly had something to do on the night that he needs help the most? It's not only my wolf that gets extra vicious during the supermoon, Voldemort's hellhounds are the same. He needed you. Besides, we can't risk him finding out about your Animagus forms. He trusts you all so much, and for you to have done this right under his nose, while still in school? I don't think he'd appreciate it all that much."

Sirius kissed Remus finger and talked from behind it anyway. "But your _face_! Not that I mind of course, I don't care at all, but all those people who keep staring and mumbling, I know it's bothering you, I can see it. I hate that you feel -" This time Sirius was cut off by a kiss.

"Ssh. I'd rather have people staring and mumbling, than knowing some poor people might have died because I kept you occupied. The scars will fade. You know they always do after a second transformation. It will be fine." Remus wiggled closer and snuggled against Sirius, kissing him again. He loved that sometimes, when he had just the right amount to drink, Sirius seemed to become much more open about his feelings, his thoughts and motivations. His bravado fell away and he showed how he really felt about things. Remus hoped Sirius would do the same in the future without the added courage of Firewhisky, but for now he treasured these moments greatly.

Sirius pulled away after a bit. "Albus did say he won't be needing me this full moon, says it would be too suspicious if both James and me are absent from our Ministry appointed housing every full moon, and since it'll be a normal full moon they can handle it with fewer people. I can sneak out at night and come to you instead."

Remus smiled. "Won't that ruin the whole purpose of you not helping out? You'll still be missing from your apartment."

"Nah," Sirius said, and suppressed a yawn. "I'm not at home now either and I spend quite some nights here anyway. I don't think Albus knows, though, so I can see why he would think it necessary. I'd just like to spend the moon with you again, you know." Sirius rolled on his back and pulled Remus close again.

"We'll see," Remus replied vaguely, and put his head on Sirius' shoulder.

Honestly, he would love to have Sirius with him again. It wasn't as if he ever remembered all that much of his time as the wolf, but he always felt so much better afterwards when he had one of his pack with him. Less agitated and he also didn't end up with as many wounds, which was always nice. Poppy could heal some of them, but the bites and scratches that he caused himself, but didn't heal during the transformation back to human, were impervious to magic and had to heal on their own, like the scratches on his face, this time.

He had expected some more protests and nagging from Sirius, after his vagueness, but when he looked up, Sirius' eyes had dropped close and he was breathing calmly, mouth open a bit, obviously asleep. Remus smiled and checked the fire. It would burn for another hour and then the embers would keep them warm until morning, probably. He laid his head back down on Sirius' shoulder and put his arm over his chest. No need to get up when the rug was so perfectly soft underneath them.

* * *

This was it for the little Halloween story! After this I found a list of 'Things you said' prompts, which will appear in the second part of this series, which I decided to call Moonstar, because that's what I accidentally kept calling the Wolfstar shipname. I quite like it. Once I start posting it I will link to it here.

I hope you liked reading this bit of fluff, comments are always very welcome ^^


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